I have a slightly bad update. I crashed a couple of hours ago a little distance from Destruction Bay in Canada. The front end of my bike started wobbling violently and I went down. Something was apparently wrong with the forks and they broke off. It was 100% not rider error and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

The bad news – I have a compound fracture in my left forearm where I broke two bones. The good news – that’s all that is wrong, and I was nearing the end of my adventure anyway. We were going to ride to Haines today and hang out for a couple of days to catch the ferry home.

As of now, we are waiting for a ride to a hospital in Whitehorse for xrays. If they can fix the arm there, that’d be good news. If I need surgery, I might need to fly to WA.

Anyway, please don’t freak out. Sarah and a few other riders are taking care of me and we will figure this out. Since I am in Canada, you cannot call me. I will try to send another update from Whitehorse when we know more.

Thanks for following this journey. It’s been a heck of an adventure so far. :)

Update from Seward, AK

As Granny Weatherwax would have it – “I aitn’t dead yet!”

I’m not sure why they the last two Spot messages didn’t go through but it was probably because we had incredibly bad weather at GlenAllen two days ago and were in a relatively crowded big city (Anchorage) a day ago. We didn’t have internet access and really neither of us felt like being online.

So a brief recap of the past week, even though it’s all a bit blurry in my mind now.

The riding through the Yukon was BRILLIANT and the crossing over into Alaska was even more dramatic than I had envisioned with the landscape being almost Tolkein-esque, an impending thunderstorm and lightning, torn up roads, complete wilderness with not a soul on the road… you get the picture… we managed to get the bikes dirty and made it into Tok before the sun went down (yes, I know that’s not saying much in Alaska).

The next day, it was pouring down rain though. My heated vest stopped working, my Goretex boots had water seep in, and I about died from the cold. We were forced to stop at Glennallen for the day after only about 120 miles of riding and checked in at the Caribou Inn. The scene at the lodge was a bit comical with biker after biker showing up looking harassed and exasperated. There were about 17 bikes parked in front of the hotel lobby that day (almost all adventure bikes too!)  The hotel room was overpriced ($140/night!!) and there was nothing to do all day except wring out our things, hope they dried overnight, trying to get warmer and talking about how we might have reached Anchorage that day.

Stuff did get dry and we set out on the road to Anchorage the next day (although a lot later than we expected because we tried to help a fellow BMW rider get his old bike to run).

The good people of Alaska have a unique torture device for motorcyclists riding the Glenn Highway. They call it the 55mph speed limit. We reached Anchorage a lot later than we had envisioned, checked in at a hostel and got dinner before calling it a night.

The next day we tooled around downtown, picked up some small tourist mementos, then set off for Seward. This morning we set off for Whittier to catch the ferry to Valdez.

More updates as and when I can.

Finally rolled into Alaska two hours ago after a brilliant day of riding – the best I’ve had so far. More updates soon if I can find a computer and internet access.

Blogging from Hyder, AK

Made it into Alaska for just a bit (head back into BC and the Yukon tomorrow). Hyder, AK to be precise and yes I got HYDERIZED this afternoon. For those not in the know, they give you a shot of some unknown liquid, and if you cannot hold it down you have to buy a round for the entire bar. It was 160 proof alcohol and yes, I held it down although my throat was on fire. They had the most unbelievably tasty pizza for a dinky one horse town too.

No bears at the creek unfortunately but we did see some gigantic salmon frolicking in the stream.

I’ve been making good time over the past couple of days and have caught up with our schedule. I’ve started averaging about 350-400 miles, which is pretty good going. I love the BMW’s suspension.

So far the ride itself has been rather dull with long straight roads fringed with trees. The one spectacular road I hit today was the 40 mile stretch between the Cassiar Highway and Stewart, where I ripped it open and zipped through the twisties. Motorcycling heaven!

In other news, I seem to be toughening up because I’ve been camping every night until tonight. Last night, we slept in someone’s barn in Hazelton. I’m really getting into this camping thing. Still need to get into the off-roading thing.

Met a few other bikers who came down from Prudhoe Bay and Inuvik with their bikes caked in mud. The bikers from Inuvik had one of their group go down on slick as grease mud. He slid down a ditch, had the bike land on him, broke his back and had to be airlifted to Fairbanks.

On that cheery note, I’m hurriedly signing off. Apologies for not replying to your comments. My time online is very limited. I’ve read them all though! Thank you for following my journey. :)

Quick update from Burns Lake…

WOOHOO!!!! Sarah and I hit the road a couple of days ago and are up in Burns Lake taking a quick lunch break. Thus far we have spent the night at Anderson Creek and Quesnel and tonight looks like it’ll be Hazelton. Tomorrow we hit Stewart and Hyder and get HYDERIZED. We also plan on going to see the bear eating fish, not to be confused with the bear-eating fish. :P

The only minor hitches we have had are me losing the bitewing on my Camelbak (plugged it with a screw and have to remember not to swallow it by mistake); and almost running out of gas on one stretch because I forget to fuel up at the last major stop and she gave me some of her gas. We rode those last few miles at about 50mph pissing off a lot of trucks and motorhomes. SCORE. :P

Talking about motorhomes, I loathe them with a passion. Would it KILL them to move over a couple of feet to let the bikers pass?

Sorry, no photos just yet because it’s mostly been just trees and trucks *yawn*. We’ll try to upload some soon though.

Stay tuned and thanks for watching!!  Over and out.